Almost
by upon-a-moonlit-sea-shore
Summary: Sometimes, Annabeth is like Percy: oblivious to feelings. Annabeth/Nico purely platonic almost-friendship stuff. Short one-shot.


**A/N: I guess I'm writing this for the PJFC Shipping Wars... It's kinda one of my first serious fictional writing, and one thing for sure is that it's like pure suck... so I hope you like suck. It's pure almost friendship.**

**I love Annabeth, but she is almost as dense as Percy when it comes to feelings...**

**Oddly, this oneshot is exactly 1,001 words long...**

* * *

"Yeah, I've known it since I was ten," Nico replies, in answer to Hazel's question. He runs his hand through his hair, staring nervously at the ground; he glances up to see Hazel fanning herself, her face slightly mortified, yet her eyes completely concerned.

"Nico, you're my brother, I love you, it doesn't matter that you like Percy," Hazel states softly, biting her lip. She is slowly becoming acclimatized to modern-day society; Piper is a helpful resource, because love is love, it's inevitable.

Hazel now suspects that Piper knew all along that Nico was homosexual, and that was the reason why she'd volunteered to teach Hazel about the twenty-first century.

She continues, voice a gentle hum, "I'll support you Nico. If you love Percy, chase him. I'll be here if you need me."

They both stand together in comfortable silence as the sun disappears over the rust colored horizon.

* * *

The sound of voices and creaking doors fill the Argo II as night settles in. Nico walks anxiously below deck as the stars appear, and most everyone (excepting Leo and Frank, they're on night duty) is busy taking a bath and brushing their teeth before bed. Nico eyes the area, taking in the grimacing Jason doing the potty dance in front of the Percy-occupied bathroom, and Piper and Annabeth chatting amiably in the former's doorway.

"Are you done yet?" Jason growls frantically at the restroom door.

"No!" comes the enthusiastic response.

Jason raps his knuckles impatiently against the bathroom door. "Well then, get out faster!"

Nico shakes his head, long strands on black falling in his eyes. The Argo II had become surprisingly normal after the Giant War was won. Thank the gods, Coach Hedge wasn't here, because the entire ship was full of hormones; it very much resembled a high school, in so many ways. One week of no looming war and his caring sister, and suddenly Nico found himself to be part of the crew, who were now constantly traveling as an inbetween for the Romans and Greeks. Although Percy was here, his crush seemed to subdue itself when there was more to think off; you can't think off much other than pain and loneliness when you're alone, naturally.

Nico slowly exhales, before heading through the door to the room that was formerly Hedge's. There, he gets ready for bed. _Tomorrow morning,_ he tells himself. _Tomorrow morning, I'll tell him._

* * *

For some reason, tomorrow morning can't come fast enough, and Nico jolts awake in the middle of the night. His breath is heavy and his heart pounds achingly fast as he grabs the glass of water dumps it all on his head.

"It's only a dream," he mutters quietly to himself as he dries his hair with his blanket. "A dream, a dream, a dream."

The dark silence of his bedroom is not comforting, though, so he seeks refuge on the deck. There, Piper is on watch duty, so Nico skirts away from her and and leans against the railing near the very back of the ship. Piper's eyes conspicuously flick over to him, and there is a vigilant smile on her face. Nico scowls, considerably more inconspicuous than Piper.

After a short period of time, without a word exchanged between them, Piper abandons her post and leaves to her dorm. Within a few minutes Annabeth is there, and unlike Piper, dares to approach Nico.

"Hey," she murmurs, her voice startling like the stars in the sky.

Nico pointedly ignores her, and stares blankly at restless sea waves. Naturally, he doesn't want to talk to Annabeth; she's his crush's boyfriend, why would he want to talk to her?

"How's life?" She presses, trying to coax a few words from the gloomy son of Hades. In ways, she was like Jason, comforting, calm and unhelpful, but the primary difference was that she was dating Percy.

Nico snaps. "Perfectly fine, until you talked to me," he says, turning to glare at her. "Why can't you leave me alone?"

Annabeth leans against the railing next to Nico, a quiet _hmm_ throbbing in the air around her.

The two of them stand in a comfortable silence, the only sound being that of the waves and the wind.

Suddenly, in the moonlight, Annabeth's lips quirk, and she shakes her head, exasperated at herself. "I'm almost as dense as Percy, aren't I?"

"Yes," is Nico's curt response, albeit the fact that he had no idea why Annabeth had said what she said.

"You like him," Annabeth declares crudely. "I should've known Piper was lying to me when she said you had a crush on me."

"What?" Nico squawks, at Annabeth's outburst. He isn't happy that Annabeth's figured it out.

"You're gay," Annabeth finishes obliviously. "I am I right?" It only takes a glance at Nico's face to answer her question.

"Get away from me," Nico growls, examining the shadows around the ship, already slipping into one slowly. On instinct, Annabeth grabs his arm, and Nico is unable to escape. "Stop," he commands anxiously, starting to perspire.

Annabeth's face is desperate, hurried as she realizes her mistake; she tries to cover it up; she just wants to befriend Nico.

Nico scowls, shooting her a look of loath. "Why do you want me here?" he says angrily. "He's you're boyfriend already, aren't you happy?"

"Nico," Annabeth starts, "I want you to be happy, too, even if you can't have him." She slaps herself mentally, _don't be stupid, Annabeth! Let him go!_ The words continue to spill out of her mouth, "Nico, you don't have to push us away because of this!"

He glares at her, face softening slightly, and the shadow releases its hold on him. "I'm staying," he replies pointedly, "if only for Hazel."

Annabeth sighs, relieved; Nico is almost touched by Annabeth's sincerity, but that's the key word in this game. _Almost._

"If only for Hazel," she echoes quietly, before resuming her post.

The two demigods stand in together in an almost companionable silence.

_Almost._

* * *

**Hope you liked it! (Yeah, I know it's short; it was written in like 15 minutes, of course it's crude and crummy. *sigh*)**

**R&R please**


End file.
